Small Objects:
A Literary Analysis of “Lullabies for Little Criminals”In “Lullabies for Little Criminals,” there are many small objects that are relevant to Baby’s life. Objects can have remarkably profound effects on a person’s life, whether they are of sentimental value or another form of personal meaning, they have an impact on us. An object can mean many things to different people. An abandoned doll in a trash bin could be seen as old and ugly to an average person, but to the person who originally owned the doll; it could have been particularly special. In the novel, Heather O’Neil illustrates the effects of such objects on Baby and their symbolic meaning. In “Lullabies for Little Criminals,” there are three objects that represent Baby’s growth and change throughout the novel: the ragdoll, the knee- high socks, and the toy mice. When introducing her new friend Lauren to her room, Baby reflects on her rag doll, “It was a doll that my mother had bought for me when she was pregnant . . . The doll also made me feel sweet inside, too, because it made me feel that at some point, even before I existed, I had been loved” (O’Neill 97-98). This illustrates Baby’s longing for a loving mother figure, which is a reasonable expectation from a 12 year old girl. Loving care is a critical need of any child. Baby does not have that feeling of being loved; therefore, she finds comfort in the fact that she was once loved. The doll is also representative of her current state of mind. Such as her wishes to be normal: have normal friends, normal parents, normal family; a normal life. When Jules destroys Baby’s rag doll out of anger, it is symbolic of a lost childhood. Her last reminder of the love her mother had for her had been torn away. Baby says, “Now I was nothing, a real nobody (O’Neill 119). The destruction of her doll meant that her sense of belonging, that she was once part of a family, was now gone. She seems as if she is being pulled into adolescence...

YOU MAY ALSO FIND THESE DOCUMENTS HELPFUL

...Childhood: the most delicate period of our lives.
Taylor Shaw
5/4/2012
Childhood is a crucial time in a person’s life and it needs to be kept innocent and pure for the child’s well-being later in life. The most important recurring theme in the novel Lullabies for LittleCriminals by Heather O’Neill is the loss of innocence at a young age and the profound complications later in life. The complete loss of innocence is built-up with multiple different experiences over time. For Baby, these experiences are: when she is first exposed to drug use, when she spends time in foster care and when she becomes engaged in prostitution.
The first experience that Baby has which causes her loss of innocence is her first exposure to the world of drug use. For her age, Baby knows a plethora of information about drugs, the world of drug users and “junkies”, causing her loss of innocence to begin at a remarkably young age. From birth, Baby is raised solely by her father. He abuses drugs for the majority of her life, causing her to be raised in an atrocious environment. A quotation from the novel that shows her abundant knowledge about substance use is, “...for a kid, I knew a lot of things about what it felt like to use heroin.” (O’Neill, 10) This quotation shows how much of Baby’s life is spent around drug dealers and drug use in general. Baby sees her own father abusing drugs and learns a copious amount of information from him about...

...﻿Lullabies for LittleCriminals
Everyone’s childhood is a crucial time in their lives, in fact in some cases our childhood determines who we are or whom will become in the future. A child’s childhood must be kept innocent and pure for the well being of the child’s future. The loss of innocence is a theme that recurs over and over again in the novel Lullabies for LittleCriminals by Heather O’Neil. The complete loss of Baby’s innocence is built up throughout the whole novel with multiple different experiences over time. Experiences such as, being exposed to drugs, spending time in foster homes and being engaged in prostitution. Baby’s childhood is ruined due to her own actions and with the assistance of others.
Baby’s first experience that causes her loss of innocence is her first experience with the use of drugs. Baby grew up with a drug addict and she was always curious about drugs. Baby for her age knew a lot about drugs, it was just a matter of time till she became a user rather than an observer. Baby grew up in atrocious environment where drugs were left on the table, the temptation of using them kept growing. Baby had also admitted that she knew a lot about drugs as she once said “…for a kid, I knew a lot of things about what it felt like to use heroin”(O’Neill,10). This quotation demonstrates how much of baby’s life was spent around drug dealers/users and drugs in general. Baby...

...aby: A Product of Her Environment
Child development is the genetic and internal changes that occur in children during early years. There are many internal and external factors that affect a child's growth and development. The connection between a child’s environment and a child’s development are explored in Heather O'Neill's lullabies for littlecriminals where a child named Baby becomes a product of her environment. This is explored through the early death of Baby’s mother, her being raised by a young father and her father's drug addiction. Baby’s bad decisions and choices come from a lack of guidance necessary for a child’s social growth and development.
The absence of a mother in Baby’s life is without a doubt one of the most significant factor in how her life turns out. Not having a mother to guide her, encourage and mold her to become a healthy young adult is evident throughout the book as the important life lessons from a mother was never instilled. Although Baby is grateful for her father, Jules’s attempts at parenting her, she recognizes that he is unable to take care of himself, therefore unable to give Baby the nurturing environment necessary for a child to flourish. This is evident when she laments “Jules tried to be a mother, but he’d always kind of fallen short on the mark” (O’Neill, 186). Furthermore, Baby does not understand the feeling of unconditional love that mothers often have towards their children...

...Overcoming Obstacles in Lullabies for LittleCriminals
Nicole Salloum
The definition of perseverance is “steadfastness in doing something despite difficulty of delay in achieving success” (28.April.2012). Growing up with a drug addict father and no real home, a child would need to have a lot of perseverance to just survive. In Heather O’Neill’s novel Lullabies for LittleCriminals the main character, Baby, proves that despite hardships, she is able to overcome obstacles and adversity and learn something about life. One of Baby’s obstacles is that her father, Jules, creates an unstable living environment for Baby because of his inexperience in parenting and his constant drug abuse. However because of Jules, she learns how to take care of herself which leads to her learning life lessons. Secondly, due to Baby’s neglected upbringing she is very much affected by other children including Xavier, Zoe and Theo who each teach her something different about herself and the world. Lastly, the presence of Alphonse in Baby’s life causes many hardships like physical abuse and prostitution that she is forced to deal with at a very young age. Despite these obstacles, Baby manages to use the experiences to help her grow into the person she is today.
Baby’s father Jules has raised her in a very deprived environment. Ultimately, this has made obstacles for Baby which she manages to overcome and...

...Quotations
Theme: Though one may feel different from others, we are all different from each other but still need another.
1. “Jules had a little kid sense of time and after a month when all the cigarettes were gone he didn’t seem to believe that Kent was ever going to come back.”
* Reliant on Jules senses or beliefs, usually influenced by addiction or drug high. When Jules is not home, Baby doesn’t know what to do and gets lonely showing need of Jules’ presents. PG3
2. “His hat was down over his eyes and when I called out his name he had to tilt his head way up to get a look at me. I knew it wasn’t me that he has been looking for. But when he saw me and shouted out happily anyhow.”
* Baby has been away from Jules for a long time and was clueless without his leadership. Jules felt differently about seeing her, then her seeing him. Has not felt love in a while, leaving her vulnerable in need of someone else. PG7
3. “As I walked in I saw a horrible sight on the floor while I been out. Jules had knocked over all my things. He had torn up the homework I left lying on the bed.”
* Consistent hostile acts done by Jules, constant battle between her and her father. She feels like it’s her vs. world. PG119
4. “Kids from school went to the theatres downtown, not the Etoile. Most weren’t even allowed to go there because someone had gotten stabbed in one of the bathrooms. Jules didn’t know this.”
* Baby starts getting into dangerous...

...﻿
Criminal Defense Case Analysis
Michael Kilgore
CJA/354
February 02, 2015
Peter Lukevich
Criminal Defense Case Analysis
One of the greatest right’s we have in America is the right to be innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. It is ultimately the job of the prosecutor to prove to the people, the jury and to the court that the accused is in fact guilty of a crime. The accused either has his own or appointed attorney to present his various defenses to argue why he acted the way he did during the crime. According to Criminal Law Today, “A defense consists of evidence and arguments offered by a defendant and his or her attorneys to show why that person should not be held liable for a criminal charge” (Schmalleger 2010, pg. 114). This paper will discuss various forms of criminal defenses and how they are used in court.
Justification Defense, the courts require that the prosecutor prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty of a crime, the defense can take an offensive role in their trial by taking an affirmative defense. Instead of sitting back and waiting for the prosecuting attorney to attempt to prove the defendant’s guilt, the defendant can fight back with defenses.
The defense of necessity claims that the defendant believes it was necessary to commit the criminal act in order to prevent or avoid great harm (Schmalleger, 2010 pg...

...garbage at the thrift store” (9)
“I made her dance on the coffee table, recounting her life story, until Jules and Lester were ready to commit suicide from boredom” (9)
“Jules and his friends had been calling heroin chocolate milk for years… I didn’t know how I knew I just did” (10)
“For a kid, I knew a lot of things about what it felt like to use heroin, just from looking and listening” (10)
“Get lost, okay?” (11)
“I spotted a big rock on the ground. I picked it up and pretended it was an injured bird and held it in my hand and stroked it. I encouraged it to stay alive and whispered to it that it would fly again soon. Then I put in my pocket with the other rocks I rescued” (12)
“Come on, Roxy, please, Rocky. How about giving me a little piece of ass” (14)
“You have to lose your virginity when you turn twelve” (15)
“I had sex with a man for fifty bucks” (16)
“as if I were the only human left in the world” (16)
“They were trying to kick you out of childhood. Once you were gone, there was no going back, so you had to hold on as long as you could. Marika was beckoning from the other side” (17)
“Jules had always told me that if I met someone dangerous to run back home” (17)
“I’m sorry I told you to get lost earlier” (19)
“He dragged me down the hall and threw me out of the house” (19)
“To Jules it was the antithesis of all that was good and civilized in the world” (20)
“That’s why he had lousy lungs now and always had to see doctors about them”...

...﻿
Rhetorical Analysis of “Little Adult Criminals”
By: The New York Times Editorial
In “Little Adult Criminals” the New York Times Editorial argues that even though some
violent crimes are more serious, minors should be tried in a juvenile court system rather than in
an adult court system. To help persuade the audience to see the point of view the author uses two
of the three rhetorical appeals, which are logos and pathos. The New York Times Editorial uses
logos to convince the audience by using some examples, statistics and supportive facts to the
argument that is being made, and pathos is used to persuade the audience to see the point of view
by appealing to their emotions against children being sentenced to adult prison.
The rhetorical appeal that was mainly used in this article is logos, which convinces the
audience by using examples, statistics and supportive facts about children being sent to adult
prison. Logos is first used in the beginning of the article when introducing Lionel Tate, a 14 year
old boy who was convicted of first degree murder for beating his 6 year old friend to death when
he was 12 years old and he was sentenced to prison for life without parole and his mother did not
accept the bargain of three years in a juvenile facility with 10 years of probation. Logos is once
again used in the example of Nathaniel Brazill, who is a 13 year old boy that was...